1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technical glacette made of composite material, of the type suitable for the refrigeration of at least one bottle, for example in vertical condition, for beverages such as wine, water and other alcoholic beverages and non-alcoholic ones. In the present case the said technical glacette is of the type provided with a cavity, for example along the circumference of the blind opening housing of the bottle, so as to provide a containment chamber, inside which is contained some material, such as a PCM gel, which is able to refrigerate and/or maintain refrigerated the said bottle.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98.
Nowadays crowding of restaurants and bars frequented by people of different ethnicities and ages, has become the main problem for the managers, who are having to offer a fast service combined with a quality that frequently suffers, due to the overcrowding of those establishments.
In particular, the area most afflicted of these establishments is the drinks one, as drinks are always the first request of a consumer who presents to a restaurant or to a bar.
Currently there is a consistent recourse to solutions in the field, sometimes original, but not exhaustive and economic for the purposes of quality of service, this because, in substance, yet do not set themselves the objective of recurring to the principles of automation and self-monitoring of drinks already in place, ordered by the various consumers of such establishments.
Known is in fact the storage using code readers of ordered item of beverages, in turn, ordered by consumers individually whereas the monitoring of the same is still a manual operation substantially a visual duty of the service staff or by express request from the consumers part.
Common can be thus complaints from the consumers part who find themselves often short of drinks or with beverages no more properly chilled, creating more so a continual movement of service personnel merely to satisfy said need.
A use fairly well known is that of glacette of the traditional type, which contain ice which melting acts as a release agent of the label usually affixed on the bottle of the drink as well as to constantly wet the bottle in which the beverage is contained, thus requiring a continuous drying of the bottle by means of a cloth which accompanies the glacette prior to its withdraw and use of the same, from the glacette.
What, therefore, we can say is that it's certainly known today, the overcrowding of public establishments such as restaurants and bars, which phenomenon and its effects directly and negatively impact on the management of rapidity, quality and quantity of the refrigeration of drinks served to consumers. What that thus results also known is the need to alleviate the burden of monitoring the management of beverages to the service personnel through a rapid automation, intelligently autonomous and of quality of such management. Known is undoubtedly lastly the disadvantage of the traditional glacette by immersion of the bottle in the ice, which are in fact rarely used nowadays and dispensed only in the case of high-cost drinks or in catering operations of high prestige.
State Of The Art
In the ambits of the devices, for cooling liquids such as wine, water and other alcoholic beverages and non-alcoholic ones, a search was conducted, which, although not extensive and not exhaustive, has made it possible to detect at least the following prior documents:
D1 EP1 51 2927 (A1)FUNKE OTMAR
D2 WO9,300,849 (A1) GROENLYKKE JEPPE ANDREAS
D3 U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,944 (A) GARDNER JAMES H
D4 WO9,522,273 (A1) ENTWISTLE RICHARD
D5 JP4,406,683 (B1) NAGAKURA YASUKUNI
D1 represents a carafe that contains a small amount of table wine at reduced temperature and the lower section is inserted in contact in cup-shaped cavity with a double wall that contains a heat retention gel between the walls, which is cooled and holds the temperature of wine during a meal.
D2 represents a lighted wine chiller. The chiller for wine is made of transparent material and is supported by a transparent support which serves as a light conductor for the light emitted by a lamp contained in a base element for the support column. The contents of the wine chiller are illuminated in such a way as to be observable and are presented with a particular aesthetic effect.
D3 represents a container for cooled wine and similar drinks or food that comprises a generally cylindrical casing in which a bottle or other container can be located. The casing is made of a heat conductor material, such as aluminum, copper, alloys of these, etc. . . . , of a thickness sufficient to conduct heat according to need in the direction of its length. The cooling device further comprises a receptacle of ice that keeps the ice or in contact with the casing or with an appendix or extension of the same. The casing acts so as to produce the container of wine with a surface that is level with or below the temperature of the wine. This substantially eliminates the transfer of heat by irradiation to the container of wine. The container also minimizes the convective and/or conductive heat transfer between the bottle of wine and the environment.
D4 Represents a container for one or more beverage bottle comprising an outer body and at least one removable spacer element. The container can be adapted to receive at least two bottles of wine simultaneously in the individual cavities, said cavities being separated by two of the spacer elements arranged back to back. The elements preferably include alveolar cells fillable with freezable liquid. At least one of the spacer elements is mobile in alternative positions to accommodate different sizes of bottles of wine. In the alternative positions, the spacer element forms with the container, alternative cavities of sizes and/or shapes substantially different.
D5 represents a cooling device of wine, which prevents the adhesion of water drops on a bottle of wine and allows the visual control of a label of a bottle of wine from a simple structure, since a conventional cooling device of wine generally requires the removal of water drops by cleaning the bottle with a towel because the water droplets adhere to the bottle of wine every time the bottle is taken out of the glacette to pour the wine into a glass. A removable fixing means applies a coolant on the inner wall of a container of cold storage, consisting of a cylindrical part and a part of the bottom surface or a container of cold storage made of bamboo cane. When the inside of the container of cold storage is filled with cold air of the cooler, the wine is maintained at an optimal temperature.
The fastening means may be a magnet, a surface fastener, a rib provided on the inner wall of the container, or other similar.
Ultimately it is reasonable to consider known:                a) a cup-shaped double wall cavity that contains a heat retention gel between the walls, which is cooled and holds the temperature of the wine during a meal;        b) an illuminated cooler for wine made of transparent material and supported by a transparent support which serves as a light conductor for the light emitted by a lamp contained in a base element for the support column. The contents of the wine cooler are illuminated in such a way as to be observable and are presented with a particular aesthetic effect;        c) a container for cooled wine and similar drinks or food that comprises a generally cylindrical casing in which a bottle or other container can be located. The casing is made of a material conductor of heat, such as aluminum, copper, alloys of these, etc., of a thickness sufficient to conduct heat according to need in the direction of its length;        d) a container for one or more beverage bottle comprising an outer body and at least one removable spacer element. The container can be adapted to receive at least two bottles of wine simultaneously in the individual cavities, said cavities being separated by two of the spacer elements arranged back to back. The elements preferably include alveolar cells fillable with freezable liquid.        e) a cooler of wine, which prevents the adhesion of water drops on a bottle of wine and allows visual inspection of a label on the bottle of wine from a simple structure;        
Drawbacks
Having said all that, and from all of public domain, thus it should be noted that the means or wine coolers commonly used in the catering establishments are still using traditional materials such as ice or its substitutes such as gels or liquids contained in sealed traditional refrigeration chambers commonly said eutectic. These sealed eutectic chambers contain coolants which, however, suffer from a poor retention of the initial temperature refrigerant charge, which then tends to vary gradually but continuously, with a curve approximately linear up to reach room temperature.
As described it thus follows that is becoming consistent the recourse to solutions in the field, sometimes original, but not exhaustive and economic, this is because still do not arise nor the aim to use the most effective means of cooling such as PCM, nor the principles of automation and auto-monitoring of beverages already in place, ordered by the various consumers of said catering establishments.
However, as regards a solution of a specifically designed glacette containing a gel refrigerant of last generation, equipped with automation and self-monitoring of beverages distributed to the consumer, there are no realizations in both fields of patent prior art or in the public domain. All the known solutions, can also be found via a check in the web, in fact relate to the use of traditional static glacette, which basically utilize natural ice or gel conventional eutectics.
From all the above, there is a need for companies, particularly of the sector, to identify alternative solutions, most effective, compared to the solutions up to now in place. One purpose of the present invention is also to obviate the drawbacks described.